Posts in the category of: Economics

Today the ONS published its estimate for Q3 GDP at -0.4%, lower than the consensus amongst many independent forecasters. Three key questions now stand out; why are the figures lower than many economists predicted? How does the UK experience compare to the rest of the world? And where do we go from here? I’ll take […]

Today, George Osborne comprehensively failed the credibility test – and a basic test of fairness. His plans fail to meet Labour’s pledge to halve the deficit over four years. He claimed “we are all in this together” – but his first priority remains a tax cut for the richest families. The Credibility Test People expected George Osborne […]

I spent a bit of time in the States last week, visiting my opposite number, Neil Wolin at the US Treasury, and a few of the President’s key economic advisors including Cristina Romer (the President’s Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors). Political economy in the US is dominated by the healthcare debate and rising […]

This week we’ve seen one of the key forward looking indicators of business confidence – the purchasing managers index for Britain’s services sector move up to a 17-month high of 53.2 for July (surpassing expectations for an increase to 51.6); Office for National Statistics data shows an 0.5% jump in June’s industrial production (the largest […]

Yesterday I got confirmation of the Government’s decision to award millions of pounds to Birmingham and its partners to help create 7,500 jobs – especially for young people. Today, there’s fresh evidence highlighted in the New York Times, of just why its so important to keep people in work. Economist, Till von Wachter finds; “even 15 […]

With this week’s news you can see why Alistair Darling has being saying repeatedly that we’re confident but cautious that growth will return at towards the end of the year. News over recent months has been mixed, but today credit rating agency Fitch reaffirmed the Government’s AAA debt rating, adding the outlook is ‘stable’; UK […]

Today’s GDP figures underline the sheer scale of the international recession that we’re fighting. It’s a force that has taken unemployment in the US to around 10% – and in Spain to nearly 20%. But today’s provisional figures for April-June this year are about three times better than for the first three months of the […]

These GDP figures are historic figures on the state of the economy 3 to 6 months ago, and once again underline the scale of the global recession, the hit to business confidence and the absolute necessity of urgent government action to deliver real help now to businesses and families. They don’t change the judgement made […]

We’re laying the ground-work for our big summit on Social Enterprise this Wednesday. See Peter Mandelson’s article here. We want to see social enterprise – with their values that major not just on making a profit, but delivering social change – play a much bigger part in our future economy – delivering more public services, […]